Main:Claudia Fragapane
Bristol, England, UK |Row 3 title = Years on National Team |Row 3 info = 2012-present |Row 4 title = Club |Row 4 info = Bristol Hawks Gymnastics Club |Row 5 title = Coach(es) |Row 5 info = Helen Potter, Rory Weavers |Row 6 title = Current status |Row 6 info = Active}}Claudia Fragapane (born October 24, 1997 in Bristol) is an elite British gymnast and 2016 Olympian. She's the 2017 World Floor Exercise bronze medalist, 2014 Commonwealth Games All-Around Champion, 2016 British National All-Around Champion, 2014 English National Vault Champion, and 2014 European silver medalist with the team. She was also a member of the bronze-medal winning British team at the 2015 World Championships. Her best events are vault and floor exercise. Junior Career Fragapane made her elite debut at the 2011 English Junior Championships, where she placed fourth on vault and floor, fifth in the all-around, and sixth on beam. At the British Championships that year, she won bronze on vault, placed sixth on floor, and eighth in the all-around. She competed at an international in Isle of Man, winning team and all-around gold, and won a silver in the all-around at the UK School Games. Fragapane made her international debut at the Coupe Avenir in France, winning team and vault gold. She went on to win silver on vault, place fourth on beam, and fifth on floor and in the all-around at the British Championships that year. Senior Career 2013 Injuries kept her out of competition for most of the year, causing her to miss her first senior English and British Championships. But she recovered well enough to be named to the British team for the Elite Gym Massilia in November. In the Master Team division, the British team came in second on vault and floor, third in the all-around and on bars, and sixth on beam. Individually, she placed sixth in the all-around and qualified second to the floor final in the Top Massilia. She finished fifth in the final. In December, she competed at the Brasilia Gymnasiade, winning bronze with her team and placing fifth on vault and floor, sixth on beam, and seventh on bars and in the all-around. 2014 In March, she competed at the English Championships, winning gold on vault, bronze in the all-around, and placing fourth on bars and floor. At the British Championships, she unveiled a new full-twisting double layout pass on floor, the first British gymnast to do so. She won silver on vault, bronze in the all-around and on bars, and placed fifth on floor after stepping out of bounds twice. She competed at two friendly meets, one against gymnasts from Germany and Spain, another against the Netherlands, winning team gold in both competitions, and placing ninth in the all-around in the latter competition. In May, she competed at her first European Championships. She contributed to Great Britain's silver medal finish, and placed sixth on vault and eighth on floor. Fragapane's breakout came at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She performed well in the team competition, qualifying to the all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise finals, she helped the English team win gold. In the all-around, she performed well on her first two pieces, but fell on balance beam. She rebounded in her last event, posting a score on floor high enough for her to clinch the title. Not only was she the first English gymnast to win the all-around at the Commonwealth Games, her teammates, Ruby Harrold and Hannah Whelan, took second and third place, marking the first time England swept the the all-around podium. Fragapane went on to win gold on vault and floor, and place fifth on beam. In October, Fragapane competed at her first World Championships. She helped the British team qualify fourth into the team final (the highest they'd ever qualified) and performed well although they slipped down to sixth place. In the all-around, she placed tenth, one place ahead of teammate Ruby Harrold. In the vault final, she tied for fifth place with European vault champion Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland. In the floor final, she performed first but bounced out of her first pass and fell, placing eighth. 2015 In early March, Fragapane competed at the AT&T American Cup. She had falls on bars and floor and finished in ninth place. She had a better day at the English Championships, winning vault gold, all-around and uneven bars silver, and placing fourth on floor and sixth on beam. She went on to win vault gold, all-around and floor exercise silver, and uneven bars and balance beam bronze at the British Championships. In April, Fragapane competed at the European Championships in France, qualifying for the all-around and three event finals. A fall on beam in the all-around landed her in sixth place, she also finished sixth on vault and fourth on beam, but won silver on floor behind Russia's Ksenia Afanasyeva. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. She helped the British team win a historic bronze medal, their first World team medal, in front of the home crowd, and individually placed seventh on floor exercise. 2016 Fragapane headlined the roster at the Glasgow World Cup in March. She showed off some brand new upgrades on uneven bars and balance beam, falling on the former event, but bounced back on her last two events and won the bronze medal. Later that month, she swept almost all the gold medals at the English Championships, except vault, on which she won silver. In April, she won her first British National All-Around title, and won additional silver medals on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise, and placed seventh on uneven bars. In June, she competed at the European Championships in Switzerland. Although Great Britain qualified first to the team final, falls on bars and beam prevented them from taking the gold, and instead they won bronze. Individually, Fragapane placed fourth on floor and fifth on vault. She was announced as part of the British Olympic team in July.Olympics Rio Olympics Having won team bronze at the last World Championships, expectations were high for the British team. They competed in the third subdivision of qualifications, starting on uneven bars. On floor exercise, her teammate Ellie Downie landed on her head on a tumbling pass on floor, which greatly shook up the team. Fragapane was up on floor after her and hit her routine, despite being in tears the entire time. Downie was well enough to vault in the last rotation and help Great Britain qualify in fourth place to the team final. Fragapane qualified as a first reserve for the all-around and floor exercise final. In the team final, Great Britain placed fifth, besting their placement four years ago in London. 2017 Fragapane continued to compete after Rio. She won silver on floor at the British Championships and later gold on beam and floor at the English Championships. She was named to the British team for the European Championships in Romania. She was subbed into the balance beam final to replace an injured Becky Downie, and placed eighth, and placed seventh on floor. In September, she competed at the Paris World Cup, winning gold on floor and bronze on beam. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Montreal, Canada, where she won bronze on floor exercise, her first World medal. 2018 Fragapane started the season at the English Championships in February, winning floor exercise gold, all-around and uneven bars silver, and placing sixth on balance beam. She was initially named to compete at the Birmingham World Cup and Commonwealth Games but suffered a torn Achilles tendon in training and withdrew.torn Achilles She resumed training in the fall, and was able to do full bar routines by October.resumed training 2019 Fragapane returned to competition at the British Championships in March, competing on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. She qualified for the floor exercise final, and initially tied for first with Ellie Downie. However, a tie breaker was induced, and Downie won the gold based on her higher execution. Fragapane won silver. Fragapane later replaced an injured Kelly Simm on Great Britain's European Championships team. She qualified to the floor exercise final, finishing fifth. She competed at the Cottbus World Cup in November, finishing fourth on floor exercise. Medal Count Floor Music 2013-2014 - "Shake Break Bounce" by The Chemical Brothers 2015-2016 - "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" by PigBag 2017 - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPeM5sUlAto "The Nutty Cracker Suite" from Thoroughly Modern Millie] 2019 - "Vivo Tango" by Maxime Rodriguez References